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If the city decides to historically designate Central Technical high school, it could not only scrap a plan to enclose its playing field with a winterized dome but keep the tainted field closed.

The Toronto District School Board closed the field in November after routine soil testing for the project revealed contamination.

If the dome doesn’t go ahead, the board won’t have the money to clean up the contamination, a cost it would have shared with Razor Management, the company proposing the project.

“The field will remain closed. We don’t have the money,” said board chair Chris Bolton, adding it will cost at least $1 million. “Our whole budget for doing all our fields during a regular growing season — spring, summer, fall — for the entire board is $1 million.”

A city staff report recommends the 1915 school on Bathurst St. north of Harbord St. be protected, as well as the vista of the building looking east across its massive sports field.

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The dome, which would cover the field from November to April, would block the view.

City staff weren’t available for comment Thursday. Local councillor Adam Vaughan opposes the project.

It’s uncertain if the historic designation means the temporary structure can’t go up. “The verdict is still out,” said Bolton.

He is also unsure whether the designation could affect the installation of Astroturf for the dome, which would remain in place year-round.

The city tried to stop U of T from replacing its back campus lawn with Astroturf last year by designating the field as a cultural heritage landscape. But the move came about a month before the project was supposed to begin and the city backed down after it realized it could face a lawsuit.

The agreement with the school board would allow Central Tech students to use the football-sized field and running track during the day. At nights and on weekends, Razor Management would be allowed to rent it out.

The school board has yet to finalize the $6-million deal with Razor, but it faced intense criticism after community members learned of the proposed 20-year agreement.

In an open letter from the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, chair Tim Grant expressed concern the dome would cover one of the only accessible green spaces that has been used by residents for years; that it would privatize a public asset and bar low-income neighbours from using the facility; that there would be little community access as the dome will be in constant use; and that the Astroturf will throw off heat in the summer.

Grant also criticized the school board for distributing flyers last year to invite residents to a meeting, referring to the project as “field improvements.”

Parking is also an issue. Residents who live near a similar dome at Monarch Park, near Coxwell and Danforth Aves., have complained about the volume of traffic.

The school board has been holding community meetings to address the issues. Bolton said residents have voiced concerns about what the dome will look like, if windows can be installed and how many months it will stay up.

“Our problem is we need to have the field open Sept. 1,” he said.

The field was closed for the end of last year’s football season and will stay closed for track and field events this spring.

Bolton said Central Tech is one of the only schools in the area with a field large enough to hold track and field events. If the board doesn’t move forward on soil clean-up by March, the project won’t be finished on time.

The board has asked to meet with the city’s heritage preservation department before the staff report goes to Toronto and East York Community Council at the end of the month.

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